Brazil's central bank says economy shrank 4.08 pct in 2015

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil's central bank says the economy contracted 4.08 percent in 2015, the worst performance since the indicator was created in 2003.

The data published Thursday also shows that the economy shrank 0.15 percent in 2014 in non-seasonally adjusted figures.

The results were broadly in line with market expectations. The average forecast of 15 financial institutions surveyed by the financial newspaper Valor was a 4.1 percent drop.

The bank used a methodology that differs from the one used to calculate the country's official GDP figures. Brazil's official statistics agency will publish its 2015 GDP figures at the beginning of March.

Brazil is experiencing its deepest recession since the 1930s. In January, the IMF forecast its economy would shrink by 3.5% in 2016.